Westlake Is Gone

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Donald Westlake, the prolific author and father of "John Dortmunder," the character played by Robert Redford in The Hot Rock, and "Walker," the money-reclaiming payback machine played by Lee Marvin in Point Blank, died Wednesday night on his way to a New Year's Eve dinner in Mexico.

The finest film based on a Westlake crime novel was John Flynn's The Outfit ('73), which I've written about over and over for not being available on DVD. Warner Home Video has the rights. Will they please remaster and issue a no-frills DVD...please? It's a genuine B-movie gem, as lean and hard-boiled as they come. (Except for the ending.) It stars Robert Duvall as Macklin, an ex-con of fee words, and Robert Ryan as a sinister-silky gangster. The costars are Karen Black, Joe Don Baker, Timothy Carey, Richard Jaeckel, Joanna Cassidy and Sheree North.

A die-hard user of manual typewriters (he reportedly couldn't stand the sound of the humming IBM Selectrics, and probably never even looked at a Mac Powerbook), Westlake was 75 years old. His final novel, "Get Real," comes out in April.

Yeah, yeah, I know -- "Walker" wasn't the name Westlake chose. His literary character was called Parker. I like Walker better.

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on January 2, 2009 at 7:36 AM

comment #1

btwnproductions says ...

The Westlake-written The Stepfather is overdue on DVD. Maybe the upcoming remake will finally allow it to resurface.

Posted by btwnproductions at January 2, 2009 8:08 AM

comment #2

Reedyb says ...

One of his funniest, unsung novels is, Humans.

Posted by Reedyb at January 2, 2009 8:32 AM

comment #3

MindlessObamaton says ...

Just saw this on the NYT site. RIP, sir.

Posted by MindlessObamaton at January 2, 2009 8:36 AM

comment #4

moorish says ...

Very sad news, RIP Mr Westlake. His Parker novels (and I know every adaptation has changed the name - Walker, Porter, Macklin, etc, but the character will always be Parker to me) are absolute classics. Still hoping for a Parker HBO series that does each of them in full. that would be awesome.

Posted by moorish at January 2, 2009 9:24 AM

comment #5

lesterg says ...

"The Westlake-written The Stepfather is overdue on DVD. Maybe the upcoming remake will finally allow it to resurface."

Agreed, always had a soft spot for the original - mainly thanks to Terry O'Quinn's work. Always surprised me that it took another 17 years for him to break out into household name territory.

The remake script is pretty pedestrian, little hope that it will be good.

Posted by lesterg at January 2, 2009 10:19 AM

comment #6

MindlessObamaton says ...

O'Quinn is indeed the man. Might've taken him 17 years, but what a way to do it.

Posted by MindlessObamaton at January 2, 2009 10:49 AM

comment #7

lipranzer says ...

Let's not also forget his brilliant adaptation of THE GRIFTERS for the screen.

Posted by lipranzer at January 2, 2009 11:30 AM

comment #8

joemart says ...

The man was a master and will be sorely missed. Up there with the likes of Chandler, MacDonald, McBain and Thomas (Ross).

It was THE HOT ROCK that got me interested in wanting a career in the movies at the age of 13. When I saw the film was based on book by Westlake, I went to the library and started reading his works. After each book I would say, "This would make a great movie." Unfortunately, most of his adaptations weren't good - JIMMY THE KID w/ Gary Coleman anyone?!

Besides his excellent scripts for THE GRIFTERS and THE STEPFATHER, Westlake was always adapting novels into screenplays. Some of his best include:

Hammett's RED HARVEST (unproduced). A gritty noir masterpiece.

UNDERBOSS (unproduced). Peter Mass' Sammy the Bull story

FUNERAL GAMES (unproduced) Mary Renault's historical mystery about the family of Aleander the Great after his death.

The guy could write any genre and always make it entertaining. I will miss him.

Posted by joemart at January 2, 2009 3:12 PM

comment #9

Reedyb says ...

I was looking forward to seeing him in person at one of the screenings of Made in USA at Film Forum in January.

http://www.filmforum.org/films/made.html

His Dortumunder books are the precursor to all the Carl Hiasson, etc. comic crime novels of today.

He stands with Elmore Leonard in creating (or re-envisioning) the crime novel, both hard core violent as well as comical.

You know you have come across a character who is truly an everyman, when John Dortmunder, his great comic caper creation was portrayed on film by Robert Redford, George C. Scott, Paul Le Mat, Christopher Lambert and Martin Lawrence.

Posted by Reedyb at January 2, 2009 3:20 PM

comment #10

Daviddb says ...

For those in the WGA, there was a dialogue between Westlake and Elmore Leonard in the WGA magazine where they talked about their methodology and writing styles...very entertaining stuff.

Westlake also wrote a great book called "The Ax" which was made into a Costa-Gavras movie (in French) but never released here to my knowledge, not even on DVD...too bad.

Posted by Daviddb at January 2, 2009 4:43 PM

comment #11

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